Ellsworth Panther William Penn took first place at the sectional tournament on Saturday and advanced to the state tournament in Madison later this week as the one-seed in Division 2 wrestling.

Ellsworth had two competitors at sectionals, Carson Wright at 113 pounds and Penn at 138. Wright did not place, so Penn will be the lone Panther heading to state. This is the second consecutive appearance for Penn, who took fourth place last year in the 126-pound weight class.

Each weight class has a 12-man bracket at state. As the one-seed, Penn will get a Round 1 bye and will not be amongst the first eight competitors to wrestle on Thursday. Instead, he will take on the winner of the match between the sectional qualifiers from Hayward and Brillion.

Head Coach Mark Matzek liked Penn’s performance at sectionals and says they’re both looking forward to being back at the Kohl Center in Madison where the annual state tournament is held.

“He was focused, and he was in control. He was wrestling to win versus wrestling not to lose, and those are two different things. So, he was aggressive,” Matzek said. “He made a mistake in the finals match today and got down 2-0, but he got an escape, then got on top and got a turn. In the third period, he got another escape and got the takedown, so he came back and ended up winning that match 7-2.”

Penn earned every point in this comeback win, each one was contested against a very worthy opponent, and now Penn’s sights are rightfully set on the title, according to Matzek.

“He's got the experience, he's a senior and he’s wrestled at the Kohl Center. That means a lot to a wrestler. You know what's going on, you know how it feels going out there in front of between 8,000 and 13,000 people and wrestling in that arena,” Matzek said. “So for him to have that experience last year, and the way that he wrestled at sectionals, he is going to continue to build momentum going into this next weekend.”

Looking back at how Penn finished up the tournament last year in fourth place, Matzek says he did a nice job last year, but they feel he could’ve taken third. This year, however, they have loftier goals.

“We have three more days of practice to prepare. He's focused, and it seems like he's enjoying the journey. Honestly, it's that goal, it's that top of the mountain experience that he's been battling, training and fighting for since he decided to wrestle back when he was younger,” Matzek said. “And I’ll tell you what, it’s a pretty dang cool experience to stand in the Kohl’s Center and get that state bracket handed to you at the very end.”

Nolan Thomley

The Prescott Cardinals’ Nolan Thomley took third place at sectionals in the 150-pound weight class on Saturday and will advance to the state tournament in Madison later this week as the six-seed.

Only the top four seeds get a first round bye, so Thomley will have to wrestle his way deeper into the tournament starting on Thursday when he will face the 11-seed from Whitewater.

Head Coach Ian Ruble is happy with the outcome but says both Thomley and he had hopes of finishing higher at sectionals.

“Nolan wrestled a kid from Stanley Boyd first round. It was someone he’d wrestled in the past, so he felt good going into the match and ended up with an early first period pin,” Ruble said. “Then he went against St. Croix Falls. That's an opponent that we haven't seen this year yet, we’ve just kind of been on opposite sides of the bracket, and it was a good match. St. Croix Falls does a great job, and they made us work for it. Ultimately, Nolan got in good position and got a pin there as well in the semifinals and qualified for state.”

From there Thomley went to the finals where he lost back-to-back matches. The first was against a wrestler he’d wrestled a close match with before at the Northern Badger Tournament from Neillsville. From there, he wrestled for true second place against Baldwin-Woodville’s wrestler and lost in the final 10 seconds of the match.

“You know, Nolan made the decision, and I support him with it, to be aggressive towards the end of the period and attempt a take down,” Ruble said. “Unfortunately, with two seconds on the clock, they ended up getting a takedown off a counter. It was tough to lose those matches at the end, but we qualified for state and we’re ready for that.”

Even though sectionals ended on sort of a down note, Coach Ruble says Thomley is excited about finishing in the top three and making the cut to go to state.

“I like it for him. It’s the first time he's ever qualified for the tournament. Last year, he fell just a step short, finishing fourth at sectionals. So, for him, it's a great turning point in his career,” Ruble said. “Something that we encouraged him about yesterday is that there's a good chance that we will wrestle both of those guys again in the state tournament that he lost to, and we want to win those matches when they matter most. And when they matter most, is in the state tournament.”

For Ruble’s part, he can see how much Thomley has improved over where he was this time last year when he came up just one place short of advancing to Madison.

“Nolan’s top work is good. I feel confident that if we need to ride someone on top for 30 seconds to win a match, we can do so. Nolan's bottom has gotten a lot better since last year, we really put an emphasis on learning how to control pressure and feel pressure on other opponents and work our way up,” Ruble said. “Ultimately, I think the key to winning matches this coming weekend will be from our feet, you know, who can get that first takedown. You see a lot of matches, especially when you get two really good wrestlers that get to that third period, and it's one and one on their feet and they're just dueling it out to see who either wins position first or loses position first. So, this week as we were preparing, we're going to spend a lot of time getting into position and breaking positions on our opponents.”

This will be Thomley’s first time competing at the state tournament, but it will be his second time attending. As a sophomore, his training partner was Prescott’s last state qualifier, Sam Murphy, who was also in the 150-pound weight class. So, it’s a little bit of coming full circle for Thomley as he tries to win a state title for the Cardinals for the first time in almost 10 years.

Round 1 begins in Madison on Thursday at 7:15 p.m. If Thomley wins against Whitewater, he will get a third chance at defeating the three-seed wrestler he lost to in the finals at sectionals from Neillsville when it matters most.

River Falls

The River Falls Wildcats had four wrestlers qualify for the state tournament in Madison at sectionals on Saturday.

Senior Jenna Lawrence took first in the 120-pound weight class, junior Lincoln McCarty took first in the 215-pound class, junior Jonas Longsdorf took second in the 132-pound class and freshman Oliver Larson finished secon in the 113-pound class.

Head Coach Cameron Loomis said that although they would’ve liked to have gotten everyone through, they knew there were going to be tough matches.

“Depending on the ranking you look at, Lincoln was probably the fourth guy in that weight class, and he won the whole thing. In our mind, that's kind of what we thought would happen, but on the ranking side, that wasn't supposed to really happen,” Loomis said. “Then Jenna pinned her way through to win a sectional title. She got first period pins in both her matches, so it wasn't really even close there. Jonas Longsdorf beat a really good Wausau West kid in the semifinals and then lost to the New Richmond kid he got beat by at regionals.”

With that loss, Longsdorf still took second place because the Wausau West wrestler won the third place match thus eliminating the need for a wrestle back and finalizing his spot at the state tournament.

The real shocker for the Wildcats program is freshman Larson making the state tournament.

“A cool thing about Oliver is that he’s either the sixth or the seventh freshman ever in River Falls history to qualify for the state tournament,” Loomis said. “With all of big names to come through River Falls, all of the D1, Big 10, All-Americans that have come through this program including 20-some state champs, even those guys didn’t qualify as freshmen. So yeah, he's amongst a pretty elite group there, and that’s a pretty big deal.”

The tournament begins for the Wildcats on Thursday at 3 p.m. at the Kohl’s Center where nobody will get a first round bye.

Longsdorf enters the tournament as the 13-seed and will face the four-seed from Sun Prairie, and 15^-seed Larson will take on the two-seed from Menomonie. Meanwhile, McCarty goes into the tournament as the four-seed and will take on the 13-seed from Marshfield. On the girls’ side of things, Lawrence comes in as the six-seed and will face the 11-seed from Brown Deer in the first round.

“It's just good to get a handful of kids down there. I think we can make some noise for the individuals that made it and get some kids on the podium,” Loomis said. “All three of the guys who made it will be back. We’re getting the kids experience there, and whatever happens this weekend, we’ll use it to keep building and we’ll be trying to come back next year.”